Congrats @gpjoe!
Contest -Three Winners Will Be Selected
- Thread starter BullGoose
- Start date
So can i be entered in it??
- Thread starter
- #83
I understand your main point, and I sympathize with it for the most part. However, from what I've been told by my (much smarter and more accomplished) linguist friends, not only does language evolve but words also change meaning over time. I was given the (apocryphal?) anecdote of Queen Elizabeth having found a Shakespeare drama to be amusing. She didn't mean that she found it funny; rather, she was highly praising the play and meant she believed Shakespeare had been touched by the muses.
Speaking of language evolving, Shakespeare also invented a number of words and phrases with his plays. But he's not alone, the English language is rife with neologisms from every era. Some words are even borrowed from writers in other languages (e.g., "Quixotic"). Then there are words borrowed entirely from other languages (e.g., "tsar," "tsunami," "typhoon," "tycoon").
As for "dunno," etc., that's just part of American vernacular. Heck, Mark Twain, the founder of American literature wrote the first true American novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in the vernacular, capturing numerous dialects in the process. Surely, you don't mean to suggest that his writing was the result of texting!
While I would also prefer it if other people adhered to the same formal rules of language I learned in my youth as well as maintained the same definitions for words as those I learned, I've come to accept that will never be. In fact, maybe it shouldn't be. Language needs to adapt to the changes in society. Some scholars even believe that language helps shape the way people think about and even how they observe the world around them*. Limiting linguistic evolution could very well stymie advancements and progress in society.
*As someone who is multilingual, I'm bemused by the backlash against the pronoun preferences espoused by those who are non-binary. This is only an issue in languages that have binary gendered pronouns. However, not all languages do. For instance, in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, there is no separate word for "he" or "she;" rather, the same pronoun is used for both genders. But with English (and the other Romance languages), gendered pronouns make people acknowledge or assume one another's (or their own) gender as a rule.
Thank You.
Thank you for your response. I genuinely appreciate it.I understand your main point, and I sympathize with it for the most part. However, from what I've been told by my (much smarter and more accomplished) linguist friends, not only does language evolve but words also change meaning over time. I was given the (apocryphal?) anecdote of Queen Elizabeth having found a Shakespeare drama to be amusing. She didn't mean that she found it funny; rather, she was highly praising the play and meant she believed Shakespeare had been touched by the muses.
Speaking of language evolving, Shakespeare also invented a number of words and phrases with his plays. But he's not alone, the English language is rife with neologisms from every era. Some words are even borrowed from writers in other languages (e.g., "Quixotic"). Then there are words borrowed entirely from other languages (e.g., "tsar," "tsunami," "typhoon," "tycoon").
As for "dunno," etc., that's just part of American vernacular. Heck, Mark Twain, the founder of American literature wrote the first true American novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in the vernacular, capturing numerous dialects in the process. Surely, you don't mean to suggest that his writing was the result of texting!
While I would also prefer it if other people adhered to the same formal rules of language I learned in my youth as well as maintained the same definitions for words as those I learned, I've come to accept that will never be. In fact, maybe it shouldn't be. Language needs to adapt to the changes in society. Some scholars even believe that language helps shape the way people think about and even how they observe the world around them*. Limiting linguistic evolution could very well stymie advancements and progress in society.
*As someone who is multilingual, I'm bemused by the backlash against the pronoun preferences espoused by those who are non-binary. This is only an issue in languages that have binary gendered pronouns. However, not all languages do. For instance, in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, there is no separate word for "he" or "she;" rather, the same pronoun is used for both genders. But with English (and the other Romance languages), gendered pronouns make people acknowledge or assume one another's (or their own) gender as a rule.
I should clarify that I don't wish for an absence of evolution for language. I completely agree with you that the living nature of language serves, arguably, a positive purposes. I just can't stand that there seems to be this acceptance of misuse or dare I say, a lack of education.
I know not everyone gets the same education or even has the same abilities. It's just that these days it seems like people can get away with anything and it's just accepted. I'm not pushing for the extreme on the other end of the spectrum, but where's the middle ground?
Thanks for educating me on languages without gendered pronouns. I can't help but think how that simplicity of identity in language goes a long way to both help eliminate backlash against gendered pronouns but also has a way to subconsciously facilitate acceptance of others that are different from ones self. When there is no he or she, there is just they. I like that.
Keeping it in the "shaving world" I would have to cite the freedom we used to have to travel with razors and blades in our carry on luggage. As we all know, these items are now required to be in checked luggage. The issue with that is, if your luggage is lost it would force one to shave with a disposable, and the canned stuff they call shaving cream, until your luggage is found.
Technically, when written an apostrophe would identify the contraction as 'cause, indicating letters have been omitted.
Not only this, but it sure feels like our school system is failing.
I remember learning cursive handwriting and sentence structure through diagrams. I'm not even sure any of that is part of the current curriculum.
I get that things change as a matter of efficiency and practicality, but what explains the astounding number of children failing reading and math proficiency?
In that case I must have been smarter than Einstein when I started out
You are very correct but how often do you see that?
Yes! Please let us know, 'cuz I certainly don't know.You are very correct but how often do you see that?
My wife asked me the other day... Do you always correct someone when they commit a grammatical error? After a brief pause, I said: "Yes... at least, in my head, to myself."
I am more forgiving, I think, when I see things in print.. when spoken, it often takes some effort to refrain from correcting them out loud, which isn't exactly polite. When I see the grammatical errors in print, my mind can gloss over them with less effort.
I am more forgiving, I think, when I see things in print.. when spoken, it often takes some effort to refrain from correcting them out loud, which isn't exactly polite. When I see the grammatical errors in print, my mind can gloss over them with less effort.
Totally agree with you!
It's funny how mathematical errors can be troublesome, but yet grammatical errors are acceptable.
And it's said that Math is the most important subject in school? I believe English is. You have to be able to read the problem before the problem can be solved.
- Thread starter
- #96
Congratulations Time Bandit - you are the 3rd Shake Fist at Sky Winner.
Congrats @Time Bandit !!!
Congrats to the winners! Kudos to @BullGoose for the generosity!
@BullGoose (Phil) Thank you for your generosity that you, and the other vendors, display here at B&B.
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This is part of what makes B&B such a great place!
